What The Plec: A Collection of Should Have Beens
by Lana Archer
Summary: This is a selection of one-shots that show my take on current, past and potential storylines in TVD. Usually Bamon but who knows what'll annoy me next. Suggestions, reviews and bickering are all welcome. Enjoy X
1. Chapter 1

**The Talk**

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"Do you know what doesn't make sense to me?" Caroline wondered as she stood next to Stefan as they watched Bonnie and Damon arguing about something or other. Since Bonnie came back she and Damon had been especially insufferable; toeing the line between bone-crushing relief at their reunion and falling back into old habits.

"What?" Stefan wondered, frowning as he considered breaking the two apart when he saw Bonnie smack Damon's upper arm. Damon growled and crowded her space as he loomed over her, his eyes widening as he hissed something.

"Bonnie and Damon…they _clearly_ love each other, Elena's also never going to put her _mostly_ self-inflicted misery aside to be a decent girlfriend to him or a best friend to her…yet they both bend over backwards for a girl who doesn't know if she's coming or going when it comes to love." Stefan turned to look at her then, a frown still prevalent on his features.

"We're not talking about this." Caroline's hands went up in response to his surly attitude.

"Sorry I forgot you got a personality transplant and are no longer the Stefan I knew." With that she spun on her heel to leave, "Enjoy keeping those two apart, if memory serves they always find their way back to this." Stefan pressed his mouth into a line and crossed his arms before walking over to Bonnie and his brother.

"What are you two arguing about?" Stefan asked, tugging Bonnie away lightly when she looked set to wring Damon's neck.

"Nothing!" Damon barked, reaching to grab Bonnie back from his brother. Stefan intercepted him easily, Damon was useless when he was angry, "Butt out Stefan, this doesn't concern you."

"Be that as it may, I don't like the idea of you two getting blood on the floors, don't make me put either of you in time-out." Stefan said even though his eyes stayed on Damon as he spoke. Bonnie yanked herself free from Stefan's grip, his surprise at her force causing him to release her.

"It's about the wards over Mystic Falls." Bonnie said as she crossed her arms, her face lined with unhappiness, "I found a spell to take it down." Damon's teeth gnashed as he clamped his mouth closed. "And Damon doesn't want me casting it."

"Ask her why!" Damon spat and Stefan turned to her, his eyes sombre as he implored Bonnie for the truth. Bonnie fidgeted under his gaze before huffing and rolling her eyes.

"…It's a big spell." She muttered, scoffing when Damon flung his arms out at that as if that alone proved a point he'd yet to make and Stefan nodded, finally getting a gist of the argument.

"You're _not_ doing it!" Damon said with a finger pointed at the witch's face and she narrowed her eyes at him and stuck her chin up and out, daring him to push her.

"You're not my keeper Damon, back off, you're not obligated in any way to protect the Bennett line and even when you _should have_ you _didn't_ so spare me would you?" She snapped and Damon's face turned wild as his blue eyes bulged. In a flash Stefan was pushed aside and Damon pressed Bonnie against the wall.

"I don't give a fuck about the Bennetts because _newsflash_ Judgy, I don't give a fuck about a lot of people but for _some reason_ the one's that I _do_ keep trying to off themselves!"

"So this whole argument is because against all laws of nature …you _care_ about me?" Bonnie gasped. Damon released her, flashing backwards as if she'd pushed him. Bonnie was still frozen pressed up against the wall her hands curved into little balls.

"Don't say it like that." Damon mumbled, looking at her, still infuriated, "like it repulses you."

"It doesn't _repulse_ me Damon," Bonnie ground out annoyed at his presumptuousness, "But it does confound me, _see_, I don't know if you've forgotten… but _you_, or _anyone_ for that matter, haven't really invested that much in my well-being. Look at the facts." Her eyes darted to Stefan too, he wasn't exempt from her argument, "So excuse me if I'm a little shocked that you've suddenly taken up the task of 'caring', especially when it comes in the form of you _still_ thinking you can tell me what to do!" She barked, a shaking hand aimed at him as she stormed forward to jab him in the chest.

"It's not like that!" Damon snapped while Stefan stood there, his mouth agape.

"What's it like Damon? From where I stand it's you telling me to _do_ this, or _not_ to do _that_, it's you and _Elena_ and _Stefan_ and your twisted little lives and histories that are still costing people their happiness, their _lives_…it's _exactly_ as it's always been." Bonnie hissed, her chest heaving.

"That's not true and I resent that." Damon hissed dipping his head to bore his icy eyes into hers.

"Resent it all you want," Bonnie said with a shrug, "But it's the truth that we've all been living, and so I've grown to resent it? _Sue_ me. I wanted a normal life where my love for my best friend didn't translate into me continuously throwing my life aside on a whim every time she stubbed her goddamn _toe_…it's no life to live and I'm done trying to live it. So think of this spell as a parting gift Damon, you can go back to your Boarding House and guzzle bourbon and celebrate the fact that you 'finally got the girl' while Stefan over here goes through him umpteenth midlife crisis and Elena finds something else to put between the two of you and Caroline keeps smiling through it all like everything's still going as planned. Do whatever you want but leave me the hell out of it and stop pretending you care because we both know those are just _words_."

"I brought you back!" He yelled and she stilled.

"I sent you home." She replied evenly.

"_More_ than once." Damon reminded her, nostrils flaring.

"I died for all of you, for Elena, _more_ than once." Bonnie retorted.

"What is _with_ you?" Damon exclaimed, "Here I am, in all my selfish glory actually giving a shit about you and _this_ is what I get?!" Bonnie chuckled and stepped back, circling the room with her eyes before they returned to him.

"It only took me dying how many times? It only took me losing my entire family, my friends as I knew them and sending you home without me…for you to _care_?" Bonnie's face was unimpressed and seething, "I hope you understand if I don't swoon at the very sight of you." She bit back at him sarcastically.

"Don't do the spell Bonnie, it's that simple. We can get other witches to do it." Stefan cut in. Both Damon and Bonnie turned to regard him icily.

"Because Luke and Liv worked out _so_ well the last time." Bonnie snapped. "Both of you need to let this go, I'm _doing_ the spell… isn't this what you wanted? You conditioned me to be at your beck and call and to fix every shitty situation you ended up in because of Elena…so here you go, the wards will be down by nightfall, you can fix whatever latest drama has crept out of a gutter in Mystic Falls and then you can have a few moments of peace before it all turns to shit again."

"_Bonnie_ –" Stefan tried again but she held out a hand and shook her head.

"Shut it." She said softly, "I don't have the strength two have two pointless arguments right now."

"Bonnie." Damon growled and she turned to face him but before a thought formed in her mind Damon had her hands behind her back. "I'll lock you away somewhere, I swear it." Bonnie began to chant and where Damon's hands bound her wrists his skin began to sizzle. But he didn't let go. He winced as the pain increased exponentially.

"Let me go." Bonnie hissed, wriggling in his hold.

"Never." Damon hissed.

"Bonnie!" Stefan exclaimed and the witch caught his eye and she pressed her mouth flat. She stopped chanting and the burning stopped, the smell of singed flesh hanging in the air.

"Don't cast the spell," Damon said pain riddling his voice, "And don't leave."

"I'm doing whatever the hell I want to." Bonnie said snippily.

"_Fine_," Damon relented, pulling her back against his chest so that his mouth was right by her ear, "But at least do it for yourself and not out of this bitter resentment that's clearly gnawing at you." He drew in a breath, drew in her scent and wanted it to stay there, to stay nearby but Bonnie wasn't Elena – when she made her mind up she stuck to it; how else could you explain her _still_ dating that pathetic excuse of a human, Jeremy? "So if you want to leave, then leave because you want to and not because the choices we made are chasing you away and cast the spell because it's something you want to do and not something you feel obligated to attempt for us…Do it for yourself." His breaths tickled her inner ear and moved the strands of her hair as he spoke. Bonnie's heart rate stuttered as she pulled away from him and slapped him clear across the face.

"Goodbye Damon." She said and turned to leave his arm shot out and pulled her to him, into a vice-like embrace. He whispered something in her ear, so quietly that Stefan had to strain to hear it.

"I love you." He'd said and Stefan's eyebrows shot up. "Surely by now you've figured out as much." Bonnie's hands were at his middle, trying to push him away.

"Why do you think I'm leaving?" Bonnie said her voice muffled as he kept her face pressed to his chest.

"You know," Damon mused putting his chin on top of Bonnie's head, "For someone who begs for freedom you sure have made yourself comfortable in this cage," He smiled bitterly then, "Don't leave because of me, and don't stay because of me, whatever – but just…look after yourself okay?" He let her go then and she stumbled a little, trying to put space between them. She stared at him long and hard, her mouth turned down at the corners. "_Okay_?" he pressed and Stefan found himself holding his breath even though he didn't physically need to. The tension in the room was unbearable. Bonnie's emerald eyes found his before she turned back to Damon. She exhaled her breaths shaky and uneven. "Bonnie, say something…" Damon pressed.

"You weren't supposed to care." She mumbled. Damon frowned and took a step towards her, why had her voice turned sad so suddenly? And why did the sound itself untie a crucial set of wires that had bound themselves around Damon's heart? "Please don't come near me." Damon's footing faltered but he made for her anyway. She flashed away; using a spell they'd never seen her use as she reappeared on the other end of the living room in Stefan's house.

"Bonnie –"

"Take it back Damon, whatever you're feeling, nothing good will come from it." Bonnie pressed, her eyes shining with unshed tears.

"No." Damon said, leaning forward a little, set to charge her. Bonnie closed her eyes and a tear slipped through and she hated herself for it. It's like he knew her every weakness, her want for love and for someone to fight _for_ her instead of _using_ her to fight the world. "I love you. _Live with it_."

"I can't." She muttered, "You can't just think this fixes it all and that this will change my mind, bend my will to your favour…I should be smarter than that by now, I'm trying to be."

"That's not why I said it and you are an _idiot_ if you believe otherwise." Damon said, taking slow steps towards her. "I'm not trying to _use_ you Bonnie, I'm trying to _save_ you. That spell _will_ kill you and I'm tired of you dying on me."

"_I'm_ tired of dying!" The girl exploded, "But I have so little left to my name that it truly makes no difference to me anymore."

"Don't talk like that." Damon said his voice gruff with increasing apprehension and anger inspired by her words.

"Stop telling me what to do." she muttered sadly.

"Stop pushing me away when I'm trying to help you!" Damon roared, flashing until he was right in her face, "let's go back to bickering like old people and try to make it through one day without something going wrong." She looked up at him with sad eyes. "Come on Bon, what do you say?"

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**I just needed to air some grievances with this.**

**Thoughts?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary: **This one might ruffle a few feathers but I'm not here to step on any toes. This is why I'm telling you all straight up that this is a _Stefan_ and Bonnie piece. I've always been fascinated by them and their parallels of martyrdom and it irks me to this day that they aren't besties at the _very_ least. She and Stefan had such a connection in the beginning of the show I felt, it was ground-breaking as far as Bonnie's idea of vampires went and he seemed to really have a soft spot for her. Then I guess the writers decided that Bonnie should be treated like poo and she was basically thrown out of the window. I'm just gonna post this and go listen to angry girl music.

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**The Brother**

She felt reckless. Free. Silly. _Wanted_. A part of her acknowledged that she was too young to be so sad. And she'd _been_ sad, exceptionally so. Until Stefan took it upon himself to make her smile again. At first he wasn't even really doing anything, he'd just kind of linger around her. Then he'd look down at her with those love-me eyes and she felt something shift, a curiosity blossom, a possibility unearth itself. She could learn to like him again, to let him in, be friends with him. She just wanted to check the price-tag first.

"What are you doing?" She blurted suddenly, causing him to freeze up. He flashed upright from where he was crouched over on her porch and spun around to look at her. He was sure that if he was still human his body would be hastily volleying between the act of draining of all his colour or letting heat rush to his cheeks. Even now, undead as he was he could feel the confusion stirring within him, the apprehension. He hadn't wanted to be there when she saw the flowers but it was a bit late now. Whether he high-tailed it or not she'd caught him red handed and he wanted to burrow himself away to avoid the questions that would surely follow when he stepped out of the way. But he stepped out of the way anyway.

"For, uh, your birthday." He managed to say, priding himself that he could form a sentence at all, no matter how fragmented. She didn't hide her surprise but then confusion lined her forehead.

"It's only tomorrow." She pointed out and he nodded.

"I know that," he took a step forward, and sat down on her front steps, "But I know Caroline too and she'll no doubt steal you away all day on some misguided adventure subjecting you to shopping trips and nail-colour interventions." Bonnie laughed softly as she made her way over to him; she sat at an angle so that she could see both him and the flowers.

"They're lovely. Thank you." She said after a moment or two. He nodded, not looking at her just yet. "Why did you look like you wanted to run when I arrived just now?" And there it was, the beginnings of all the questions she'd ask him. He frowned a bit, his nose crinkling as he picked words out that he hoped would lessen her curiosity and avoid any shreds of alarm.

"I wanted it to be more of a surprise." He said, slowly, enunciating each word as if they were unfamiliar to him before then. He turned to her, "It has a note with it you see." She nodded.

"And what does this note say?" She wondered and he smiled in a way that told her she may never know the answer to that.

"I decided, when you startled me, to rather keep it for myself." He replied. She frowned prettily.

"But it's a part of my birthday present." He shrugged.

"It's not your birthday yet so I don't have to be compliant with everything you say."

"I suppose I'll have to wait until midnight then." She froze after saying that, realising what she'd implied, quickly reopening her mouth to reaffirm the boundaries that they'd so carefully constructed while he'd dated Elena but he cut her off with a grin. They were so far past that.

"You suppose correctly." He said. Later that night he showed up at quarter to twelve and she opened the door, widening it some so that he could enter. He shook his head to say no; instead he held his arm out to her.

"Just for a few minutes." He said and she shrugged, not seeing a problem. He walked her until they stood a few feet away from the porch, looking at the house she thought at first. "Do you trust me?" he asked, returning his gaze to her face, "Not a lot, I think you need to trust me about fifteen percent for this one?"

"Only fifteen?" He nodded and she pretended to think it over. "You'll have to make do with ten."

"Close your eyes." The smile was evident in his voice as he came to stand behind her like he had when she'd fallen into the well eons ago. She obliged him and felt the earth leave her feet before she landed with a muted thud on a much steeper surface. Opening her eyes she gasped, her hands flying immediately to Stefan and he chuckled, keeping her steady. They were on her roof.

"Wha-_aaat_ are we doing up here?" She stammered her laughter nervous as her wide eyes sought out some sense in his expression. He seemed so at ease, so insouciant as he held her upright, coming to stand closer to grip her waist as he walked them to a spot he found appropriate for sitting.

"There's a meteor shower any second now." Stefan said, "I thought you might like to see it." Bonnie inched closer to him, she'd made the mistake of looking down and her stomach was displeased.

"You've been quite the affectionate gentleman Mister Salvatore," Bonnie said her voice teasing but the underlying question as clear as day.

"I guess I'm just trying to say thank you." His voice tilted upward towards the end of the sentence, turning it into a question. Was he questioning if it would suffice? Was he questioning why he felt like he had to say thank you? "I never said it enough before, but I really want to make a point of it since you're back and safe and alive." Bonnie nodded. "You brought Damon back to me; I can never thank you enough for that."

"And yet I have a feeling you're going to try to anyway." Stefan smiled but then he perked up suddenly and lifted his gaze. Shaking the hand that was in his he muttered, 'look, look, look' in rushed whispers, his eyes wide with wonder. Bonnie did as he asked but not before memorising that expression on his face – she'd never seen it on him before, it was so peaceful, so happy. When she looked up her mouth plopped open, ungracefully she might add but it didn't matter as they both stared up as they sky fell down around them. It was truly a sight to behold. Bonnie blinked a few times after it ended and she felt a soft sadness as the moment passed her, a kind of wistfulness. Stefan must have recognised the look on her face because he nodded at a question she hadn't even formed let alone phrased. "Yeah, me too." Bonnie smiled and moved to rest her head on his shoulder.

"Is this okay?" She asked and Stefan wanted to laugh at her, she could cut his arm off at this point and he wouldn't mind. He supposed that was more telling of his character than hers.

"You can lean on me as long as you'd like," he replied looking out onto her street, "And then a little longer after that." She held onto his upper arm, looping her two arms around the limb, letting her eyes wander to their surroundings. Everything was so dark and sleepy looking, but the stars, the stars danced and winked and shook as they hung in the sky – so full of life.

"I don't know why we weren't friends before now," she said sounding a little sad, "I mean at some point I suppose we were but then it all fell apart and I was dead too long to keep whatever was or wasn't between us consistent." She couldn't see Stefan's frown.

"No," he replied tersely, "Never blame yourself, if anything the reason you died so often was _because_ of what was or wasn't between us and I'd like to shoulder the blame for that if you wouldn't mind. I'm tired of the world thinking it can rest on your shoulders any longer than it already has." A strange smile moved her mouth then, she felt like she shouldn't find warmth in his words, but she did. She began humming, a tuneless melody that set them both at ease before something occurred to her. Just as she raised her head to speak he beat her to the punch. "Happy Birthday." He whispered and her eyes lit up as he held out a folded card to her; simple elegant paper, folded in the middle and she knew it was the note she'd been moments from asking for. Grinning, she extricated herself from him and took the paper, opening it without further delay.

_If it were up to me you'd never die_

_You'd live forever so that I could tell you every day_

_How wonderful you are, how valued and crucial you've always been_

_And how much I've grown to care for you._

_I hope your year is incredible and I hope you haven't forgotten how to live._

_In case you have, I'm happy to remind you._

_Stefan Salvatore._

She stared at the words a while longer and the apprehension Stefan had felt when she'd spotted him leaving the bunch of sunflowers on her porch returned. Her watched her mouth open and close as words came and went. Her brows furrowed as if she were deciphering or memorising a spell. Her skin flushed like there wasn't a cool breeze moving between them even then. She looked up, slowly and fearfully. When her eyes met his something inside of her must have wavered because she gasped at the feeling as it gripped her and threw her arms around his neck. Stefan wasted no time hugging her back, making sure to let her do most of the squeezing.

"Do you know how long I've waited for this kind of feeling?" she asked when she pulled away, the note still tucked between the fingers of her right hand. "Being alone in the other world taught me to respect and value myself but there's a whole other kind of encouragement and empowerment that comes from being appreciated by someone else." Stefan nodded, almost stupidly as she opened up to him. He had to keep reminding himself that Bonnie was a human; so often she'd speak as though she'd lived a thousand years and seen things that had never even occurred to him. "Does that make sense?" Stefan nodded. "Thank you Stefan."

"Thank _you_ Bonnie." He replied.

After that they were inseparable, although yes, he'd been right about Caroline hogging her for the majority of her birthday but for days after that they grew closer, grew fonder and forged a freedom between themselves that no one could taint. Weeks and then months passed and Bonnie felt like she was growing into herself and then out of herself as she learned new things, saw new places and remembered the note he'd given her the night the stars had fallen around them. She felt reckless. Free. Silly. _Wanted_. A part of her acknowledged that she was too young to be so sad. And she'd been sad, exceptionally so. But Stefan had taken that sadness and melded it with hope, eventually turning it into a drive that fuelled Bonnie as she propelled herself into a realm of vivacity and dizzying whimsicality. She'd never felt anything like it.

_If it were up to me you'd never die_

Bonnie remembered a movie they'd watched together one night, she'd convinced him that while catching up on adventurous things were wonderful, being still and calm could be equally as pleasant. Quiet moments could remind you that you were alive too. The movie was _Perks of Being a Wallflower_. She remembered crying as she watched it and then her breath hitching with that one fateful line: 'I feel infinite'.

_You'd live forever so that I could tell you every day_

_How wonderful you are, how valued and crucial you've always been_

Bonnie had gotten sick a few months after that and Stefan had put an immediate end to their adventuring. Much to her dismay. He was looking down at her again as she lay in the hospital bed, with those love-me eyes after the doctor had explained to her what exactly had gone wrong. It turns out that when you die as often as she did it took a toll on your body…resulting in: surprise, surprise – _death_. According to the tests her body was slowly going to stop functioning; crucial organs withering away until her body just stopped altogether. Stefan was angry, she could tell. And he never got angry like Damon, or Jeremy or even Caroline. No, he got angry the way she did, in a resigned fashion, wondering if leaving it up to fate was the only choice and not wanting to be selfish and push at the barriers between plausible and impossible. But he looked like he wanted to push, in fact he looked like he wanted to pull, to break, to smash, to scream, to do anything but stand there and watch her die.

_And how much I've grown to care for you._

"Bonnie, please don't die." Was all he said and that's when she began to cry. In _earnest_. Of all the times she had died before, of all the times she had cried before, it had never been with this frightening density in her chest – this resounding finality that she had finally run out of time. "_Please_." He begged as he gripped her hands and buried his face in her stomach as he sat beside her in a chair, her racked breathing forming a twisted tempo for his own unnatural gasps of air as he tried and failed to hold his tears back. He didn't know if he was begging for her sake or his. If she died again, he doubted very much that there was anything anyone could do to bring her back and if she died…then well, then his _thank you's_ were useless and his words would all mean nothing because she'd take them with her and leave him empty. His head snapped up then and he wiped at her face, moving her hair and tears aside silently begging her to open her eyes. Once she did he was frowning and serious, and desperate for her to hear the words he was about to say. "Bonnie, I love you."

"I love you too." No hesitation, but he shook his head.

"You misunderstand me –"

"You must have misheard _me_," she interrupted him, cupping his cheek, "I know full and well what you mean and I mean it too, to you." His heart swelled and shrivelled, rejoiced and mourned at the jarring bittersweet tonality of it all. "So I am dying then?" she asked, "For real this time?" Despite Stefan's inner turmoil he managed to nod and she pursed her lips, nodding in return. "I want you to take me home Stefan."

_I hope your year is incredible and I hope you haven't forgotten how to live._

_In case you have, I'm happy to remind you._

"Bonnie are you sure?" He asked, for the umpteenth time and she only _just_ resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him. When she nodded again he exhaled sharply, bracing himself.

"_Do_ it." She prompted him and he clenched his jaw but acquiesced.

_If it were up to me you'd __**never**__ die_

When she woke up she didn't feel terribly different but she wasn't about to get ahead of herself. The first thing she saw was him and she smiled. He smiled back.

"Hi." She said, sitting up.

"…Hi." He moved to sit next to her on the edge of his bed where he'd left her to 'sleep'. "Wanna get it over with?" she scrunched up her face with the single most adorable expression he'd ever seen and nodded her head.

"You'll talk me through it?" he took her hand in his as an answer.

"I just have to say something first," he leaned into her and kissed her soundly on the mouth, using just enough pressure to remind her that were millions more where that came from, "…Thank you for not dying again." She smiled and pecked him on the lips. "Thank you for choosing forever."

"How could I say no to a love like yours for the rest of my life?" she wondered aloud and the smile on Stefan's face was blinding.

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**Thoughts?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary: **Look at me go with all these updates. This one we're back to Bamon because I'm a sucker for those two. There have been so many moments that they've been purposefully snubbed, denying us all of the chance to see 'em smooch on the tellay. It's an outrage I tell you. So here is my take on their first kiss. This is from Damon's POV, it's the first time I've written it through his perspective and I had fun. Oh, timeline wise Bonnie came home sooner than canon and the wards were still up. It'll make sense why it's like that I swear. _Enjoy_. (thank you for all your wonderful reviews, in my mind they make up a quilt that I use to roll myself into a blanket-burrito in, 'cause I'm weird like that)

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**The Kiss**

Take a look at Bonnie Bennett. Go on, just look at her. Shush, no, don't say anything or you'll startle her. Just, take it all in for now. Her brown hair, cropped into a sleek bob manages to catch every ray of light in each strand, glittering and reflecting the sun with an almost otherworldly phosphorescence. Her skin? Her skin is flawless and the perfect mixture of something just a little deeper in hue than your run of the mill olive undertone in a complexion. Hers is warmer, browner, prettier. Don't even get me started on the shape of her body. She was a little skinny when she first got back, who could blame her? But now she's got most of her curves back, the angles of her collarbones are still as proud as her nose and the jut of her chin. Her little shoulders, her why-even-bother-calling-them-feet feet that are so little and always housed in these flowery pumps that hurt my eyes a little if I stare too long at the patterns. Her legs are shapely, so much so that they distract me sometimes when she storms off and I watch her leave, making me stand there staring after her wondering exactly what I had done this time around to make her huff so loudly and storm off cursing my name. I have to blink a few times to remember where and who I am – and those are just the effects of her _legs_.

If I'm honest with myself then I have to say this out loud, well, at least in my head. I have vampire vision; _everything_ is crystal clear, pronounced to the point of pain. I can see every nick on the surface, every scratch, pick up on every flaw. And on Bonnie Bennett? Bah. Good luck trying to find one. I'd imagine the same could be said about me considering how devilishly good looking I am but for once, this isn't about me, it's about _her_. It's about me procrastinating from telling her how I feel about her. Not that she asked or anything, it's just that that's all anyone else has been doing so naturally I mulled it over and came to the first insane conclusion – I love her. Now, whether or not I'm _in_ love with her is still debatable, but I figure I'm headed there eventually. I mean, today, I actually shut up when she asked me to. _And_ I didn't kill anyone when she said no to me, or even when she said yes to me (you never know what could be the wrong answer with me; for someone whose so 'easy to please' I really do have a lot lines that people cross). On top of that she makes me smile like an idiot, she puts up with my shit in a way that makes me want to have _less_ shit and she didn't erase her memory of me, doesn't resemble either of my ex-girlfriends and she puts me first. Whether she'll admit it or not, I saw that look in her eyes when she sent me home, she loves me. I just have to get that into her stubborn little witch head.

Oh, she's back and on the phone. _Ooh_, she looks _pissed_. She's doing that thing with her mouth again where she turns it up a little at the one corner, like she's thinking really hard. Probably about new ways to shut me up, I keep interrupting her when she talks, only 'cause her smacking my arm every now and then reminds me that she's aware of me. I'm an idiot, I _know_. Oh shit she's looking at me. How could I forget those eyes? _Fuck_. They're this combination of greens, hazels, gold flecks and angel dust. Why else would I be gaping at her every time she so much as blinks at me? I don't know how this happened, it's like I woke up one day and her face looked different or something. I don't know. Like my perspective on her shifted. Instead of associating headaches and foiled plans with her name I know find the word 'Bonnie' synonymous with 'heroine', 'brave', 'beautiful', 'loved'. Things that she's always been or should always have been recognised as. She's still staring at me, I better say something.

"…What?" she crosses her arms over her chest and narrows her eyes at me.

"Don't play dumb with me Damon, where's my _grimoire_?" Oh, yes, _that_. I hid it because she keeps insisting on doing this spell by herself to take the wards down. As far as I'm concerned we should just give it to the Parker's, hold proverbial guns to their heads, get them to lift the wards and have the twins duke it out while everyone watches. Sounds like the perfect Saturday afternoon to me.

"How should I know it's _your_ grimoire Bon-Bon."

"Don't call me that." She rebuffs me so cutely. Nice try lady but prepare to have me unleash the power of my eyes. She shifts a little as I stare her down, I know she's trying to figure out my angle but she's too stubborn to come right out and say it. She's always liked to watch things play out a little. Is it weird that cornering her does something to me? Shut _up_ brain.

"What are you doing Bonnie?" I tower over her, another perk of our dynamic, "You know there are plenty more witches were you came from but you're insisting on flying solo. Why?"

"Why not Damon? I can handle it." I pressed my lips together, hoping to convey how unconvinced I am and how stupid she's being with the expression on my face. She didn't have to shoulder everything anymore. _That_ era was slaughtered by yours truly thank-you-very-much. It only takes someone hating you and then loving you and saving your life to realise all the wrongs in the world. I was the poster child of the Free Bonnie campaign, I don't care what anyone else says, _I_ was there for her when she needed me and I didn't stop until I got her home. Why? Because I'm Damon fucking Salvatore and she's Bonnie fucking Bennett. We get shit done it's _how we do_. And now she's back and hell bent on pissing me off all over again.

"I don't care if you can chant the spell a thousand times without getting a nosebleed," I hissed, getting right up in her space, letting her heinously mouth-watering scent waft onto my person, "You're not doing it alone, or at all if I have anything to do with it."

"So you admit it then?" She asks, lifting a brow at me all suspicious-like. I roll my eyes and move to turn and walk away, surprised when she latches onto my arm. "What's your deal you've been off lately." I look back down at her and sigh dramatically. She always insists on having these pep-talks with me, it's such a _ball ache_ sometimes. _Most_ of the time. _Always_. Whatever, shut up Brain-Damon.

"_Moi_? Off? How dare you." She narrows her eyes at me and now she's crowding _my_ space; we go back and forth like that, like our arguments are choreographed. She looks at me, damn near scans my face with her witchiness.

"Something's different, it's been different since you told Elena to quote 'keep her amnesia' unquote. What is it?" _You_ I want to say. But I don't. I _won't_.

"_You_." I say… Just once, I'd like for my brain and my mouth to have an understanding, just once. Her already wide eyes turn to pretty green saucers and I know I've done it now. Stuck my foot right in it, swirling the toes of my boots in the poop. _Genius_. She's going to run now, I've seen deer's before they break into a sprint and they look exactly like she does right now. I'm never gonna see her again. On second thought, I'll probably see her tomorrow, I still have her grimoire after all – no need for me to be so dramatic.

"What about me?" She wonders.

"Everything." I whisper, scared that if I talk any louder I'll frighten this moment away.

"Is this good or bad?" She asks and I smile, as if she has a bad bone in her body. I'd have found it by now. Given her a good talking to about it as well.

"There's nothing bad about you." I reply, all suave-like. "Not that I've had the full tour or anything but I've only ever heard good things." I threw a wink in with that, because I'm a dirty old man. She stares at me drolly and I'm reminded why she makes my undead heart flip flop in my chest, sending echoes throughout the rest of me. She doesn't like my bullshit and I love that about her. "I meant about your personality, you know, not your –"

"I'm going to stop you there," thank _god_, "And then I'm going to ask you why you're staring at me like you want to kiss me."

"Because I want to kiss you." I say. A long moment passes between us where we stay still and just look at each other. I'm honestly impressed everyone else has left us alone for so long, there's always _something_ going wrong. She starts smiling and I don't know why. Soon I'm smiling too, just 'cause she is and we're just standing there, grinning at each other like we know something the rest of the world doesn't and never will. We know _us_. Bonnie and Damon. We're the heroes of this story. It's only a matter of time before we go bickering off into the sunset.

"And you haven't yet, why?" She asks and I groan a little at the back of my throat, I can't handle her teasing me like this, with her shiny eyes and perfect mouth. "I thought you did whatever it was that you wanted."

"Not with you," I say, "I've learned the hard way to know better because of you and when it comes to you. Besides, I know it's become somewhat of a tradition between us, fighting and all that, but I'd prefer it if you _didn't_ ever set me on fire again for the things that I do or want to do." She nods and her eyes leave my face for a second and I falter, thinking maybe I said too much and should've have just kissed her face off and let her burn me for it. I've been burning this whole time anyways. "Besides, I prefer them consensual." A glimmer of amusement soars across her features as she looks back up at me.

"You always make me do all the hard work don't you?" She admonishes me and I'm about to give her an earful when she stands on her toes and kisses me.

Holy shit. _She's_ kissing _me_. Quick! I have to kiss her back before she realises what she's doing and runs off screaming to find bleach to slosh around in her mouth. So I do and I put all my years into it while I'm at it – everything I am. I lift her up because I don't want her craning her neck, I want her eye to eye with me, her mouth hard on mine, not slanted over at some angle. I want _every_ angle. Her legs are around my waist like she'd planned it this whole time and the feel of her just unravels everything inside of me and I don't know where the wall came from but I have her against it in seconds. _This is so much better than arguing_, I think to myself, _we should do it more often_. Even though my eyes are closed they get a little crossed when I hear the sounds she's making as we kiss, they harmonise with the sounds I'm making and there's a melody of pants, thuds and fabric-friction to accentuate it all into one sexy symphony. This is brilliant. She moves her mouth away and sucks in some oxygen while I trail my mouth over her jaw, under her ear, her neck before she pulls me back to her lips and I happily succumb to them. They're even softer than they look. She tugs on my bottom lip with her teeth and my grip on her thighs tightens until I'm sure she's bruised. She doesn't care though, look at her she's on cloud nine and she took me with her. She starts moving against me when I think it can't get any better and I almost drop her it feels so good.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," _what the hell am I doing_? "Bonnie," I breathe against her mouth, she looks at me expectantly, "You know I'm never going to stop kissing you after this right?" She grins.

"_Good_."

And just like that. I got myself a Bonnie Bennett.

* * *

**Thoughts?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Note: **There's only one thing I love more than Bamon, and it's Bonnie getting justice.

_ Also_. Those who wanted a sequel to Damon and Bonnie's kiss STAY TUNED :D

* * *

**The Teeth**

I never thought she'd do it. Then again, I doubt anyone would have pictured me flipping a coin to decide her fate either. But I'm a callous bastard and now she's dead. Well, mostly. Her mother is in hysterics, mourning a daughter she didn't know. Caroline had taken to screeching; something about what terrible people me and Stefan were. I don't know why she brought my name into it; Stefan's the only one who remotely cares about humans between the two of us and even he was there when the coin was flipped. Bonnie's heart had stopped some time ago; and she'd transitioned without any intervention, something we were all so sure she'd need. We thought Elena would at the very least have pull out the waterworks to convince Bonnie to drink blood. But Bonnie's eyes had snapped open and she stared at everyone, individually, for tense moments at a time before her eyes fell on me. When they did her face hardened and she extended her arm. It took me a second or two to realise she was gesturing to the blood bag in my grasp. I walked over and handed it to her and she drank it. Just like that, if I hadn't been there I wouldn't have believed it myself. Her fangs extended but she didn't make a sound, her eyes bled into the fierce redness I knew so well but she remained still to the point of rigidness. Taking even breaths she blinked a few times and Stefan and I watched in open-mouthed shock as she easily coaxed herself back to her human visage. She swallowed, once or twice, her face crinkling, showing the slightest discomfort at the lingering copper taste swirling on her tongue. With that, she shuffled a little to the edge of Stefan's bed and stood to her feet. She looked around, tugged her socks and sneakers on, pulled on her cardigan and walked right out of the boarding house. Stefan of course followed her and I did as well, a little slowly I'll admit. By the time I had made it the two of them were in the woods and Bonnie was leaning against a tree just staring at her hands while Stefan spoke.

Unsurprisingly he was in the middle of some long-winded speech about capability and control, and she'd be fine and how he'd help her. As I came to stand next to him her eyes snapped up with that same hardness claiming her features.

"I'm still waiting." She said suddenly, her voice cool and hard, much like the suddenly flat sheen of lifelessness that covered her emerald eyes. Stefan frowned while I crossed my arms.

"For?" My younger brother inquired at the same time I opened my mouth.

"I'm sorry." I said. Her expression didn't falter. Stefan's head snapped to mine and then back to hers.

"I am too, Bonnie I –"

"Shut up." She snapped. "That's enough." The way she said it illustrated perfectly that she meant our words and not our actual apology, I doubted very much anything we said would fix it, no matter how contrite we were or weren't. "You killed me." She went on and I nodded. "And now I'm like you." I nodded again; Stefan had employed the sense to stop responding. "Are you _happy_ now?" she yelled, her voice turning shrill and startling the birds that fled the tops of the trees they'd been nestled in.

"Happy?" I echoed and in a flash I was thrown backwards, my back slamming into the brittle bark of one of the trees that warped under the weight of my collision. I eased myself up and locked eyes with her. She hadn't moved from where she stood, the only explanation for her attack being her raised hand that was still palm-out pointed at me. I shot upright and charged forward. "You still have your _powers_?" I accused, I don't know why. I had no right to. But surely she'd be less mad if she still had her magic? It was all she ever harped on about; that and the blasted 'balance' of nature which ironically she now defied in every possible way. Her head tilted to the side and I felt the atmosphere shift. My instincts were rapping hurriedly on the doors of my acknowledgment, but I ignored them. Every fibre of my being screamed that I was in the presence of a predator but my arrogance forwent that – I had always and would always be the bigger threat between myself and Bonnie Bennett. She was far too soft to delve into the animalistic instincts of vampirism. She couldn't even give into her bloodlust like a _normal_ new-born…oh no, she had to go and plough right through that and skip straight to threatening me. "Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked and she smiled, her face twisting into a mask of danger and promise. Stefan took an unconscious step backwards and this seemed to amuse her even more as her grin widened to terrifying proportions.

"Like what?" She wondered, "Like I want to kill you?" I nodded. "Well that's because I _do_ Damon."

"Look I'm sorry I turned you." I began and she flashed forward and grabbed my throat, my eyes bulging almost immediately from the swift pressure that blossomed in my throat and head. I gasped and clawed at her hands, my eyes turning to Stefan only to realise she was throttling him as well.

"You're _not_ sorry Damon," She countered hotly, "Neither are you Stefan, because once more your lives are being ruled by one girl, one face and one tragedy…except now _I'm_ the one who had to pay the price…_again_ I might add." She increased the pressure and I swear a vessel burst in my eye, and then again in the other. I heard Stefan grunt and hiss under her hold and wondered if the same had happened to his eyes too. I could hardly see anything clearly anymore. "I ought to stake you both." She grumbled, her sweet voice laced with anger and resentment, "I ought to pay you back for what you did to my Grams, what you did to me…and I just might." I hissed her name through my frantic gasps of air, the sound of it breaking and fumbling over itself and she giggled. My feet left the ground and I was sure this was how I was going to die; looking into her eyes I realised that there was a strong chance that once my brother and I passed out we'd never wake up and it was unlikely that anyone would find our bodies. I said her name again, well, I tried to and she scowled. With a lightning quick flick of her wrist I heard Stefan's neck snap and she let him fall to the floor like a broken toy. Her eyes never left my face. "Are you scared?" she asked and I felt my eyelids flutter as my eyes rolled back into my head, I could hardly hear her voice at this point, I wasn't healing fast enough with the strength she was using to strangle me. "I hope you are. I hope you remember this feeling; of having someone impossibly stronger than you dangle you around like you _weigh_ nothing, treat you like you _mean_ nothing and take from you like it is nothing to _do_ so…" my back was against a tree, the same one I'd slammed into I think. Before I could pull in a mouthful of oxygen as she let her grip around my throat go I felt teeth sink into my neck and a pulling sensation as she drank from me. In some alternate universe I knew this could have been a different situation entirely, hell it could have been pleasurable and exciting. But now it was downright horrifying because she didn't know when to stop and even if she did I doubted she would. She even drank with speed and control, fluctuating the flow so that nothing spilled; like it came so naturally to her to be what she was now. The one thing she hated more than her broken home and desolate life – a _vampire_. I could feel my insides drop in their temperature, I could feel my cells protest, my brain let off siren after siren, but I was too weak to fight her back, my arms hanging loosely on either side of me like I was paralysed.

"_Bonnie_." I gurgled.

She pulled away suddenly, like she'd been electrocuted and I fell to the floor, crumpling like useless rubble at her feet. I heard movement as she dropped to her haunches and loomed over me.

"Next time you feel like using me to keep Elena safe, to treat me like I'm nothing but a nuisance when I'm not bending to your every whim I want you to remember this moment right here… _You_ on the brink of death with me barely using a tenth of my strength. I want you to remember how utterly powerless you feel right now and I want you to dredge up its memory and _never_, _ever_ call on me again." She flashed upright as I tipped over onto my back and sucked in short desperate breaths as I tried in vain to stay coherent. "You miserable _bastard_." She growled and I watched helplessly as she lifted her foot and everything went black.

* * *

**Thoughts?**


	5. Chapter 5

**Note: ***winks forever*

* * *

**The Kiss **

**PT II**

"You realise we can't undo what we just did." I sounded smug even to my own ears. I looked down at her; taking in her flushed cheeks, her bright eyes and the lines I'd drawn between the strands of her hair. She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes playfully. I still had her pressed up against the wall, but I'd let her slide down, so her feet were on the ground.

"Do you want to?" She wondered. My snort was loud and haughty.

"_Please_," I said closing the space between my mouth and hers, "My only regret is that it took us so long." She laughed; a soft, quick breath that fanned over my mouth as I dipped my head down a little more to brush my lips over hers.

"You say that like you've been waiting for this." She muttered, her heart fluttering when her mouth moved over mine, her bottom lip snagging between my teeth.

"One thing you'd do best to remember Bennett," my fingers dug into the curves of her narrow waist, "I'm perseverant," a kiss, "persistent," I ran my tongue over the seam of her lower lip, "And simultaneously the most impatient person you'll ever meet." I moved my hands down further to grip her ass and lifted her so she stood on the balls of her feet and squeezed a little, liking the sound we both made as a result.

"I'm beginning to see that." She sighed against my mouth before slanting her lips over mine and kissed me until I felt myself getting nudged to my second death – I swear it. "_Damon_." I hummed against her mouth as we continued to kiss. She gasped as a growl curled up my throat and vibrated through my chest into hers as her fingers ran through my hair and down the nape of my neck. She was both gentle as a feather and fierce as a thunderstorm and I wanted all of her, as long as it was mine to take.

"Bonnie," I muttered against her neck, having lifted her up again, she weighed next to nothing, I smiled against the curve of her shoulder before trailing kisses back up to her mouth, "_Bon-Bon_." Her giggle warmed every corner of my body. I pressed a little harder into her and her breathing hitched. I would have patted myself on the back if I didn't have my hands full of my little witch. I drew her scent in through my nostrils and let the smell burn through what was left of my already singed insides. I felt the veins call to the surface but I ignored the urge, I had far more important matters to attend to. She started moving against me again and I grunted a little as I tried to keep my head on straight. But soon my body was moving in tandem with hers and the _friction_, which started out as utter perfection was quickly building into the urge for more – _**so much more**_. A strangled whimper left her mouth and it unlocked something inside of me and I'm a thousand percent sure she has my hands printed into her skin now.

"Damon?" That definitely wasn't Bonnie and we both froze. For the love of… "…_Bonnie_?"

"_Shit_." She squeaked and jerked away from me as an automatic reaction, looking over my shoulder at my brother. I tightened my grip on her legs and swung my head around to lock eyes with Stefan and "Elena, oh god…_Hey_." Bonnie's nails dug into my shoulders and her heartbeat was thunderous, echoing more so throughout the otherwise quiet room. Her skin flushed when she tried to move away and I pulled her back, bulging my eyes and shooting a quick glance down at the juncture where our bodies met and back up to her eyes.

"**Boner**." I hissed as breathily as I could and her already wide eyes turned to saucers even though we both knew the blush that coloured her cheeks after that had a lot more to do with how 'twirly' she was feeling as opposed to our intruders. Heh, _twirly_, it's cute that she calls it that. I turned us at an angle so that we could both look at Stefan and Elena, while the two of them volleyed between expressions of shock and confusion. I watched as Stefan drew in a breath and then coughed, obviously smelling more of Bonnie than he ever had. I narrowed my eyes as I saw something flash in his.

"To what do we owe the pleasure?" I drawled, trying to be as casual as possible while still in close proximity to my kryptonite. Elena looked like she'd turned to ice while Stefan did his best to hold my gaze.

"When Bonnie didn't answer her phone we thought," He swallowed and frowned a little, "We thought she'd found her grimoire at least." My head was still spinning a little and Bonnie's heartbeat was far too distracting but I forged on.

"Yeah," I clicked my tongue loudly and unapologetically, "I have it."

"I _knew_ it!" She cried out suddenly, wriggling in my arms as her green eyes turned to slits as she tried to glare at me. I puckered my lips and blew a kiss at her with a wink, surprisingly, it shut her up. Score one for Damon.

"Hush," I told her, "We don't have to argue about that just yet." She blew out a breath but her hold was still gentle where her body met mine. Every time she moved it did weird things to my insides, which, by the way, is _**not**_ conducive to having a straight-faced conversation with your brother and your ex-girlfriend.

"At least put her down so that we can discuss this like adults." Elena snapped, still frozen in place. I turned my focus on her and studied her body language.

"Do anything stupid and I'll be sure to trump it." I warned her, moving Bonnie's body in such a way that it covered the front of mine when her feet met the floor and I kept one hand on her shoulder, while the other was splayed across her torso to keep her in place. I'd never wanted to be penis-less more in my life. Bonnie's sent lifted up and off of her, curling into my nostrils, permeating the room in seconds. My smile was tight and Stefan moved to stand in front of Elena a little, more to stop her from doing anything stupid, but even so. It seemed to spur the doppelgänger on.

"When you said you didn't want me to remember," Elena began, her frown deeply etched into her forehead, "Was it because you're in love with Bonnie?"

"What I feel for Bonnie has nothing to do with you." I was quick to rebut, "In fact, if anything, you made it easier on everyone by forgetting about me…you moved on, like I wanted you to. Why can't I do the same thing?" Tense silence followed while Elena's mouth opened and closed a few times…She wasn't going to win – you couldn't if you literally had _**no idea**_ what you were talking about.

"Because you're Damon Salvatore and I'm…" she looked so perplexed then, trying to summarise what we had, I mean, I would have helped her, I just…didn't want to, "I was supposed to be your epic love." I made the sound of a nasal buzzer and moved Bonnie closer to my front.

"Pretty sure we've all established that that was you and Stefan." My brother swallowed, having the sense to remain uncomfortable in the face of whatever this hot mess was. "And I know I drove the wedge between the two of you, believe me, I won't bother denying it…I regret that, I do, but what I regret more is not pursuing my own happiness, forging my own path, finding _my_ epic love…" Bonnie tensed. "Whether that's Bonnie or not, who knows, I'd like it to be, more than anything and just the thought makes me happy, and for what it's worth, I want the same for you…" My eyes slipped to Stefan then, "For _both_ of you."

"_My_ best friend…" Elena said, disdain clear in her tone and I huffed in annoyance.

"Wrong," I snapped, "She's _my_ best friend."

"_Easy_ –" Stefan voice cut through the rising tension.

"She is," I said, adamant, "Kissing her doesn't change that."

"Enough." Bonnie said suddenly, her eyes locked on Elena. "Do you love him?"

"Do, I – what?" Elena stammered, Bonnie squared her shoulders and tried again.

"Do _you_," she emphasised, "Love _Damon_?" Elena frowned and stammered a little.

"I, I think I do." She said and Bonnie growled in the back of her throat, the sound flying straight to the top five of _Damon's Favourite Bonnie-isms_.

"And don't you think he deserves better than that?" The witch in my arms pressed. I fell for her, **hard**, then and there. "Because I _do_, Elena, and I have for some time now and I know that there's a lot wrong with that – and I'm sorry – we could have really hurt you if you hadn't…_you know,_ but he feels the same way and what else is there to say?" My hand on her stomach dug into the fabric of her shirt, pressing my nails to her skin. I heard her heart flutter happily in response.

"Would it even have mattered if I'd said yes?" Elena asked. I looked down at Bonnie, craning my neck to take stock of her expression. She looked utterly indifferent yet empowered, still flushed with the colour I'd brought to her skin.

"No, but I thought I'd hear you out first, take your feelings into account." Elena nodded, albeit unhappily. Bonnie exhaled sharply and leaned her back into me a little. It lifted the corner of my mouth. "…I'll call Liv and the wards will be down by the end of the day." One of her hands crept around and held onto the seam of my jeans, her fingers rubbing the fabric between them absently, like it brought her comfort. I loved that.

* * *

By nightfall Bonnie and I were in my bedroom in the Salvatore Boarding House. "I Found" by Amber Run started playing on the sound system after a flick of her wrist.

"_Perfect_." I whispered, kissing her again as we sat at the edge of my bed.

_I'll use you as a warning sign_

_That if you talk enough sense then you'll lose your mind_

_I'll use you as a focal point_

_So I don't lose sight of what I want_

The small breaths she took as I pushed against her mouth a little harder would surely be my undoing. Her hands ran over my arms, my shoulders, snuck down, down my front, where they bunched in the fabric of my shirt and pulled me even closer. It seemed everything, and I do mean everything, we'd been through until this day had been some elaborate obstacle course to get us to open our eyes to the truth – that her mouth on mine, it was all there was to it.

"I love you too, you know." I spoke against her mouth, lifting her swiftly onto my lap.

"_I know_." She grinned as she rotated her hips and swivelled down to create more of that brain-numbing friction from earlier. "I can feel it." She said and I would have leered at her after making some lewd comment or other, but I knew she didn't mean my erection – she was much too ladylike at present. I'd give it a good ten minutes before all that goes out the window. I _cannot_ wait.

_I found love where it wasn't supposed to be_

_Right in front of me_

_Talk some sense to me_

"I have to tell you something." She hissed against my mouth and pulled back, wanting to hear her out, even though I wanted her underneath me more.

"Shoot." I grinned. Her face blanked for a moment before she pecked me lightly.

"Remember how you were looking for the cure in Nova Scotia?" She said and I froze. "I found it before I came back. I used the map you left behind."

"You w-what?"

"I have the cure," she said carefully, ghosting her fingers over the back of my neck, lifting the hairs there, "I brought it back, for you."

"I…" What could I say?

"If you want it?"

"I, I mean, I want _you_," I said, unevenly, my brain as useless as ever, "I –"

"This isn't about me Damon," she said, "It's about _you_."

"But if it's about me that means it's about you too." I said seriously.

"Decide for yourself and we'll work the rest out." She said and her eyes shone with so much affection I could feel it washing over me, warming me, with everything she was.

"I want it, I," I laughed then, "Bonnie, I, thank you, I don't –" her mouth covered up my giddy gratitude with sweet butterfly kisses. She was too perfect, how was any of this real?

"You're welcome."

"Just when I thought I could fathom you," I breathed, pressing my forehead to hers, "You blow me out of the water."

"It's a gift." She teased and I kissed her – hard. When we came up for air I held her gaze.

"I want to be human with you," I said running my hands up and down her back, "I want my heart to bear erratically with yours," her eyelids fluttered a little then, "I want my skin to burn for you like my heart does," Ugh, someone call Billio Shakespeare, "I want to grow old…with you, I want the days to be punctuated with moments like these…with you, I want my legacy to be a part of yours and when it all ends, I want it to end with you, like I did when it was just us over there." Her smile was sad and beautiful and happy and everything this moment was turning out to be. "I want a life with you, will you grant me that?"

"How on Earth could I say no?" She beamed and I flipped us over, her back bouncing off of the mattress.

"Who needs forever when I can have you?" I grinned.

_I found love where it wasn't supposed to be_

_Right in front of me_


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary: **I shouldn't watch horror movies alone.

* * *

**The Dance**

Bonnie knew she was different. Others knew that as well. What no one knew however was what tonight would bring. She'd been apprehensive at first; not seeing the point in going to prom when her life was in shambles. Yet, as usual she'd been acquiesced into a blind compliance. She wore blue, thinking it had been her favourite colour once; when she'd concerned herself with the mundane details of her life. Matt had asked her along with him and she'd breathed a sigh of relief – if he was with her maybe she'd even smile tonight. Maybe she'd even dance, maybe she'd even remember what it was like, if even for a moment, to be a normal teenaged girl at her high school prom.

Fixing her hair she stared herself down long and hard in the mirror hanging in her bedroom. Just then, Matt stepped inside with that affectionate shyness she saw as so familiar and so warm. A half-smile found her lips as she locked eyes with him through the reflection.

"Bon, you look beautiful." He murmured earnestly and her heart swelled a bit. Goes to show what a lifetime of neglect could do to a girl; one compliment and her eyes were already tearing up. "Hey," Matt said as he stepped forward once he noticed how misty her eyes had gotten, "You okay?" She turned and raised and dropped her arms, her answer lost somewhere in the gesture. He nodded in understanding, fixing her with one of his best sympathetic expressions as he moved to hold her. "You know, sometimes I wonder about what our lives would have been like if we were all just human…if there was no blood, no sacrificing, no endless rivalries that have nothing to do with us but cost us all the same…if there was none of that. Just the group of us, being stupid and human and seeing where that went." Bonnie sighed into the pressed collar of his blazer as her arms wound around his middle.

"I never thought I'd envy normality." She mumbled as he absently rubbed a circle into her back.

"I never thought it would reach the point with us when I hardly knew where you were at anymore. But I don't and…I'm really sorry for that." Bonnie leaned away from him a little and smiled softly.

"Matt, I know that no matter how often we do or don't talk that I'm important to you, that I matter…you're the only person besides Caroline that I can truly say that about right now." He frowned.

"How did we end up like this?" He wondered and she shrugged stepping away from him.

"I stopped asking myself that a long time ago." He pursed his lips and nodded, eyes lighting up when he remembered something.

"I know that you're not really into it, or in the mood or whatever but I have a few things planned for tonight to make sure it rocks." Despite herself she grinned.

"I'm all ears Donovan."

* * *

Elena felt nothing. When Damon had told her to turn it all off she was apprehensive at first; but then that innate cowardice of hiding behind something instead of approaching her feelings head on sought her out and she subsumed herself in the opportunity. Her glittering eyes were dulled, her mood soured with a perpetual distaste for anything outside of her own interests that were fleeting at best and her days were spent withering away in her nothingness. It felt good, strangely, considering that she couldn't feel. She'd allowed herself to dwell in the freedom of reckless abandon and she would take them all down with her – one wink at a time. She felt bolder, colder and she knew that she was about to do something stupid but she also knew that everyone else would let her. They were pathetic, almost as pathetic as she had been when she begged to stop feeling…when she pulled away once more from the truth. There was no honour in what she'd done, on some level she knew that, but on another, more prominent plane of acknowledgment she'd come to find that being emotionless was exactly what she wanted – what she needed and damn whoever got in her way. She was going to have one hell of a prom night.

Starting with Caroline.

* * *

It had all started out innocently, for lack of a better word. Caroline's dress had gone missing and the blonde was beside herself. They all knew it was Elena so they all let it slide. Then the comments started. "_Damon_ this…_Stefan_ that." Even without her feelings she bore an uncanny resemblance to the girl who still couldn't decide whose heart she wanted to break more. It was unnerving. Bonnie tried to reach out and was rebuffed, not that she even had it in her to muster up some surprise. Turning your emotions off made things more clinical, more cut throat, more black and white – for the vampire. They were able to seek out and destroy your every vulnerability that you'd shown them, every chink in your armour, with poise and sin-sneer-ity. Elena turned her emotions off to avoid mourning her brother; turning her attentions instead to harassing her 'friends'. Bonnie felt that familiar flush of anger vibrate through her bones but she reeled it in, pulled it back, lest Elena's final words be something biting at her expense.

"Is it harsh of me to say that 'this Elena'," Matt curled his finger as her raised his punch cup to his lips, "Has been coming all along?" Bonnie bit her tongue. "You can admit it Bonnie, some things can't change no matter how much we love and support someone, aren't you tired of romanticising everything just for the sake of what's left of your sanity? The minute we accept it, maybe we can move on and live our lives."

"Don't you think I want that?" Bonnie hissed as she stepped closer to him, her green eyes shaking as they bore into his face, "But what do I have to live for? What do you have to live for? We have nothing anymore Matt; no more family, no one to go home to, no one who remembers us the way we were, no one who sees us that way anymore…so what is there to rebel for? Look at Elena…she's lost so much as well, and we've let ourselves go half mad trying to pretend we know what we're still doing here, why we're still fighting when there's only a mocking memory of it all left." He swallowed, "I stay for moments like _these_ Matt, right now between us, moments where someone understands me, actually _listens_ to me for once…" He gripped her hand in his, "And I stay because until the day that good prevails, I have little else to live for."

"You know," he put his cup down and tugged her gently to the dance floor, "I always knew you were a good person, but I never knew you'd become this warrior, this force," she rolled her eyes but a smile crept to the curve of her mouth, "And you're still so _little_, still Bonnie, the girl who sees the good in everyone, who has the biggest heart I've ever seen."

"And you're still Matt," Bonnie said as she craned her neck up to look at him as they swayed to and fro on the dance floor, "Warm, funny and kind. _Familiar_…" she rested her cheek against his chest and breathed the moment in; savouring it, cherishing it for what it was – a moment's peace. She blinked the sudden sting in her eyes away, their fluttering blurring Jeremy's smiling face in her mind's eye.

"I hate to interrupt," Damon's voice broke the bubble surrounding them and they both turned to glare at him, he grinned, "Oh who am I kidding, I don't care about whatever it was that you two were blabbering on about …what I _do_ care about is where the hell Elena is."

"Unlike _you_, Damon," Matt scowled, "Bonnie and I haven't dedicated our entire existence to residing up Elena's –"

"When was the last time you saw her?" Bonnie asked, effectively cutting off the blonde boy before he launched into a full-blown tirade, or lost an arm. Damon smirked over Bonnie's head as she stepped away from Matt and towards him, as if to say, _you sure about that?_ Matt growled softly in the back of his throat.

"Bonnie –" Matt huffed incredulously

"I don't trust her anymore Matt," Bonnie said, spinning around and bulging her eyes in frustration, "Do you think I wanted to spend all night playing her gopher? This is so that everyone here, at school, people we've known for _years_ actually survive tonight." Damon scoffed.

"That's a little dramatic, even for you Bon-Bon –"

"Don't call me tha –"

"Elena can barely steal a dress; I don't think we have to worry about mass-_murder_." He tisked seamlessly over her. She narrowed her eyes.

"Are we going to find her or stand here while you pretend you have this situation under control?" He took pause then and eyed her out the way he usually did; like it was her fault they were constantly doing damage control and not the girl he was besotted with.

"Fine," he snapped, grabbing her by the elbow and breaking into a brisk walk, with Matt scrambling after them, "Me and you do a _perimeter check_," he bugged his eyes out a little when he said that, hinting at a locator spell she knew, "While Boy Wonder over there and his merry men scour the crowd." He lifted his gaze to Matt then, eyes shining with what could only be described as a mixture of haughtiness and condescension, "Think you can handle that Jock Strap?"

"_Damon_ –" Bonnie hissed, her face turning angry. Matt exhaled through his nose sharply, his mouth pressed into a flat line before he nodded and got missing. Damon followed him for a few moments before turning his eyes onto Bonnie who was still fuming about the way he'd spoken to the boy.

"Oh, _whatever_," Damon sneered as he yanked her out of the double doors into the night, "Like he didn't know I thought he was an idiot."

"Insufferable asshat." Bonnie muttered under her breath and despite it all, it managed to get a small smile out of the vampire.

"Flatterer." He quipped.

* * *

"Elena?" Matt called, having just separated from Tyler who had, despite his sighing and eye rolling, gotten on board with everyone's plan to get Elena away from the school dance. "Elena it's me." He was in an empty room, starting to feel like he was chasing a ghost.

"I know." Her voice came from behind him so he spun around quickly, still missing her as she flashed away. His instincts had him bound in a sudden fear but he was also so trusting when it came to Elena that the idea of her hurting him, jarred him and left him defenceless.

* * *

"I don't even know why I'm here with you, I should be with Matt, _you_ can look after yourself." Bonnie muttered, exasperated, having spent her allotted time with the elder Salvatore. She could only stomach so much of him when he was like this, and she'd had her fill thank you very much.

"So you agree then?" Damon said with a light chuckle, "He _is_ useless." Bonnie sighed and began to walk away, unsurprised when he was quick to follow. Huffing, and feeling herself become more and more on edge she sneered and picked up the pace.

"What I meant, _Damon_," she practically spat his name, "Is that I actually care about what happens to Matt." He pursed his lips, unphased by her blatant disregard for him. "You?" She shrugged before shoving open the double doors. Almost immediately Damon stiffened. Her eyes flitted to him. "What is it –" he didn't let her finish her sentence as he flashed them over to where he smelled blood.

* * *

"_Ungh_," Matt moaned feebly, his eyelids fluttering hopelessly as he dropped to the floor, "Elena – **stop**."

"Why? This is what you want." She cooed against the crook of his neck where her teeth had just been lodged, "You said you'd do whatever you had to, to make sure I was okay." She reminded him, "And I'm not okay, and right now, you're helping."

"This isn't, wh – _Bonnie_." He hissed helplessly as stars swarmed into his vision. Elena's already dark eyes hardened when she heard Bonnie's name.

"Why call for her?" Elena hissed, yanking his head backwards to sneer at him, "She can't help you." Matt made a sound that was somewhere between a gurgle and a cough. "Besides, Matty, I'd _never_ hurt you."

"Oh really?" Bonnie's voice cut through the atmosphere sharply, and Elena's head snapped in her direction, and then to Damon, and back. She narrowed her eyes.

"_You two_," Elena drawled, "I should have guessed the Dynamic Duo would be here to try and stop me." Damon pulled Bonnie back when the witch moved forward to try and get to Matt. His eyes were stuck on the vampire who was hovering over Matt's twitching body; she looked like Elena, sounded like her, but there's was something lost, something off – something that surpassed the lifelessness of a vampire who'd turned their switch off.

"Get **away** from him." Bonnie hissed and Matt mumbled a response, her name again maybe, but its meaning was lost somewhere in the bubble of blood that poured out of his mouth. Damon heard Bonnie's heart speed as she gasped, her eyes lined with tears. "_**Matt**_!" She screamed, "Let go!" She shouted at Damon, her green eyes wide with horror when his grip stayed on her. "Let me _go_!" Elena frowned.

"Let her go Damon." Elena said evenly as she rose to her feet, Matt's body sliding to the floor as she stood. "You don't care about the witch remember?" She tilted her head. "You'd pick me over her, every time. So _pick_ me. Let her go." Damon clenched his jaw, Bonnie still tugging at his hold violently, her wide eyes stuck on Matt's limp body. She kept blubbering his name over and over but everything in the room seemed to turn cold when Damon spoke.

"No." Bonnie jerked back, in surprise and frustration, still pulling at her arm, so much so that it had begun to sting and burn at her joints, but she didn't care, she wouldn't stop, she needed to get to Matt.

"Damon!" Bonnie gasped. "_Please_."

"Yeah Damon," Elena's voice was flat even as she smiled at them, "please." Damon looked at Bonnie and then at Elena and then back at Bonnie, letting her go. The witch went flying forward, making a beeline for Matt, but Elena was faster. Luckily Damon was faster than both of them. He shoved Bonnie forward, to avoid Elena's hold and spun around and pinned the snarling vampire against the wall. Bonnie landed awkwardly with a thud against Matt and the wall and immediately cradled his head, not even thinking about the open gash that curled from her knee to her calf.

"Matty, Matty, look at me, please, _please_ just look at me." Bonnie hissed frantically, "Matt! Matt." Damon looked away for a moment too long, too distracted by the pain in Bonnie's voice to focus fully on Elena and the other vampire used that to her advantage. Before Bonnie had time to even react Elena had her against a wall with Damon thrown clear across the room. Elena's teeth were in Bonnie's throat an instant later and the vampire wasted no time guzzling down blood.

_Snap_.

Elena screamed and jerked backwards as Bonnie broke one of her collarbones. Damon tugged the vampire back and held her arms behind her back while Bonnie dropped down to Matt, her own injuries forgotten. She could hardly see through her tear-riddled eyes, could hardly think beyond her adrenaline and blood loss. Yet every fibre of her being was trained on the dying boy in her arms.

"…Matt..." She sobbed, her head dropping down to press her forehead against his. His skin was turning cold. "No, no, no, no," her head snapped up, "Give him your blo –" but Damon was already gone. Her heart contracted painfully in her chest even as Damon's actions were more or less what she'd expected from him. Where was Stefan? Caroline? Tyler? _Any_ of the others? Bonnie began crying in earnest and the lights in the room flickered and burst. She snapped upright and checked for a pulse. _Nothing_. Something wriggled in her chest as the puzzle pieces tried to click together, to get her to comprehend what was in front of her. The sensation in her chest swelled as her blood-stained hands fell away from his body and she fell a little backwards, his head rolling to face her, eyes dulled with death. The feeling grew and grew, got sharper around the edges, louder, headier. Bonnie gasped and in a flash she was upright. Her vision was flickering and her thoughts were running a mile a minute but only fragments of them registered in her mind.

Killed him –

Jeremy,

Blood, my neck hur –

Matt. Matt. Matt…

Dead.

We're all _dead_.

Before she even knew what was happening she was walking through throngs of people; their bodies pushed aside from pulses of her magic. Some people caught sight of her before she flung them; gasped, screamed – she was a mess. Drenched in her blood and Matt's, a spot or two of Elena's…

She drew in a breath and zeroed in on where the vampires where, kicked off her heels – and _ran_. She wasn't really touching the ground, more skimming it with the propulsion of her magic. When she came to a sudden stop outside of the boarding house a hushed voice sang to her in the wind; making her promises and she tilted her head into the recklessness. Her eyes snapped back open and when they did the lights in the large house flickered and burst and inside, she heard a gasp or two, but what did it matter. Matt had spent his final moments as Elena's chew-toy, begging to breathe, to live, and the memory, the innate knowledge shot a jagged line of pain through Bonnie, knowing she could have been with him instead of Damon…She should have stayed with him, cared more for him than Elena. What good did loving Elena get anyone? She swallowed the dry bits of guilt and mourning, gagged a little on her love for the dead blonde boy, alone in an abandoned classroom and focused on one face and one face alone.

A face she'd known all her life. A face she wanted to rip to pieces and scream at – maybe even at the same time. The front doors to the Salvatore house blew apart, dangling helplessly at the hinges as she stepped through. Dried blood cracked on her skin as she moved and her head went this way and that, her face animalistic in its curious gaze as she hunted them down.

"Come out, come out wherever you are." She whispered. Two could play coy and destructive and she knew with the hand of magic, she would be a thousand times more convincing than Elena. No one expected Bonnie; good-hearted little wallflower to be capable of anything outside of blind forgiveness. But she was and she'd finally found the trigger to launch herself headfirst into violence. She could smell the shift in the atmosphere, knew it was her doing.

"…Bonnie." Of course it'd be Stefan first. Why even bother. He was worse than she was, she at least tried to draw lines around her heart; Stefan ripped his chest open and invited everyone into it. He'd never learn and she'd feel bad for him if he wasn't standing in her way. She spun around and he was behind her, eyes roaming over the busted doors and then her. She watched his leaf green eyes widen and his mouth plop open in wordless shock. "Are you hurt?"

"Does it matter?" She snapped and he became perplexed, prettily so. "Matt's dead." Again, he had nothing to say. "I'd advise you to leave before you join him." He swallowed and yet he was serene – as if she'd told him the stains on her dress were nothing but a product of the latest fashion trend.

"…Bonnie, I'm sorry, I –" The sensation rippled forward and she snarled at him, frightening both him and a part of herself that was growing smaller and smaller by the second.

"**No**." She roared, "_**Not good enough**_. Nothing you say will _**ever**_ be good enough." She spun on her heel. "Elena!" She yelled, "Get down here before I burn this place to the ground."

"Bonnie, ple –" She sent a pulse of magic at him with an errant flick of her wrist that propelled him backwards and against a faraway tree. The satisfactory snap of his neck punctuated her smile as she locked eyes with Damon and Elena as they descended the stairs.

"You killed him." Bonnie spat into the vampire's face when she and Elena stood within arm's reach of one another. "You know that right?" Elena's face flickered, wavered but she crossed her arms and nodded.

"I was hungry." Was all she said. Damon had never seen a witch move as Bonnie did after that. Elena was grabbed by her throat and lifted up by Bonnie, who, seemed unsatisfied with it and threw the brunette into one of the walls.

"_Get up_!" Bonnie half-screamed. Damon took a step towards her but the look she sent his way pushed him backward – literally. Bonnie's focus was back on Elena, just in time for the vampire to shove her hard into the carpeted floors of the living room. Damon fell free of the binding spell as Bonnie's mind reeled from the impact. He moved forward, but reached for Bonnie, intending to get her away from Elena, whose red-black eyes were gleaming murderously. Elena caught onto his intention and sped up, yanking brutally at Bonnie's arm, both girls screaming out immediately after. Bonnie'd burned Elena, while Elena had pulled her arm out of its socket. Damon ripped Elena up and away and reached for Bonnie, only to be pierced with the single most painful aneurysm she'd ever given him. Howling and blind he crumpled to the floor, writhing. Bonnie paid him no mind as she hurled herself at Elena.

All she could think about was that she'd lost it all too, she'd lost her family, she'd lost Jeremy too, she'd lost any innocence she could have had – because of who Elena chose to love. The same …_things_, that couldn't care less if Bonnie were alive or dead as long as it benefitted Elena somehow. Scrambling to her feet from where Elena had tossed her Bonnie grinned, her teeth stained red. Sending a sharp line of magic, Bonnie snapped Elena's collarbone and sent the magic down further still, whittling away at Elena's whole left arm, which caused the vampire to cry out in pain. It still wasn't enough for Bonnie. Her Grams was dead. Her mother fled…Why?

**SNAP**. Elena cried out again as her knees buckled and Damon moaned in relief as the sirens in his head gave way to a swift nothingness. All he could see through his hazy vision was a swirling ball of fire flying over his limp body to the other end of his house. As his mind bled into a thick darkness he only hoped that somewhere inside of the witch she'd at the very least toss him out of the house before it burned to the ground.

"Dead!" Bonnie screamed, waving a hand and sending Damon's body flying out of the house at Stefan who'd recovered. With a grunt she knocked them both unconscious with a vicious pulse of power. _That ought to hold_, she thought to herself without turning to even look at them. "Everyone I love is DEAD. Because of _you_!" Elena didn't even respond. "I know you don't 'feel' anything right now Elena and everyone's granting you a hall-pass because of it. But I won't. You haven't _cared_ in a long, **long** time and I genuinely don't see a difference in you outside of your confidence in your convictions. You've _always_ seen Matt as a means to an end. Caroline too, in so many ways – actually we all are, aren't we?" Bonnie curled her one hand and Elena's eyes rolled into the back of her head while the Boarding House began to rumble and shake under the weight of Bonnie's magic. Bonnie clenched her fist and blood spurt out of from the vampire's trembling lips. "Nothing and no one will ever be good enough or, or, _suffer enough_ for you…you're a black hole and none of us will survive if you're alive." Bonnie's body lurched forward as a pulse of power fled her body and crashed down and around Elena. "How _could_ you…To **Matt**?" Bonnie was trying to see reason, trying to piece together the events that led to this moment, this madness, but it only mad her madder. "Wasn't losing _Jeremy_ enough?" Bonnie was crying now, because it sure as hell hurt enough that everyone she cared about died…it hurt like _hell_. She shouldn't be the only one feeling this way, no, it wasn't fair… "Who am I kidding? You don't care right?" Bonnie stepped closer and punched Elena – **hard**. "That's for Matty." She pulled Elena back up and grabbed at her throat, the vampire a dangling string of broken bones and heaving bruises and wounds, charred here and there with still singing burns. She started choking her, "This is for my Grams, for my mom, for Jeremy, for very lie I've ever told to protect you, every spell I've cast to save you, every part of myself that I've lost because I thought you still loved and cared about me…we were supposed to be _sisters_, Elena –"

"Do it." The vampire gasped, "_Kill me_. See how long you live once they realise what you've done." Bonnie laughed, short and humourlessly.

"Do you think I care about them? And how could I possibly be to blame when it's you Elena, remember? It _always_ comes back to you." Bonnie gazed at her steadily, watching the colour drain for Elena's skin as her 'bleeding' spell took hold, she was quite literally sucking the life out of the vampire. "This is what you get for putting yourself first, when there's no one to fight for you, no one to take the brunt of it, guess what 'Lena…" Her green eyes bled into black, "You _burn_." With that she let fire pour from her fingertips and curl around Elena's neck. The vampire-girl's scream was shrill and hollow as Bonnie torched her from the inside out and the outside in. She dropped Elena's still thrashing body onto the den floor and waved her hand in an arc, spreading the fire up and around her as she walked calmly to the gaping entrance of the Boarding House. Whether the wooden beam crushed Elena of its own accord or not was anyone's guess.

A sudden wave of nausea swept up into her but she washed it down with her still prevalent anger, she couldn't get Matt's face out of her head, or Jeremy's as Silas used his image to antagonise her. She couldn't help but think of Caroline and Tyler finding Matt…and when they heard what she did…

By the time Damon and Stefan came to, they were greeted with the sight of their home aflame while Bonnie stood near the entryway, the flames licking out to her skin, not harming her as she clutched clumps of her tattered dress in her fists on either side of her. From where they lay they could hear her mutterings…

"Dead, dead, dead, they're all dead, ssh, don't cry, there's never time to cry, you, you, you, you killed –" a shuddering breath, "But we all die, it's the balance… Dead, dead, dead…" She fell to her knees on the grass a few feet from them, purposefully unaware of them and their lucidity. They watched, in frozen fear as she waved her hands up and around in fluid motions, causing fissures in the walls, groans up from under the house's foundation, she brought the damn thing to its **knees**. A whoosh of heat and rubble flew out as it collapsed, the debris fluttering over and around her, sailing straight for them, causing them to yell out and roll out of the way. The picture she made as she fell apart was intoxicating to Silas as he watched her from where he stood. The inferno in front of her, an afterthought as she mulled over the possibilities, possibilities he was all too happy to incorporate into his own plans. Her hair shooting out behind her from the rolling walls of heat and fire that came off of the house, her dress in shambles, her tears curling around her like the embrace of a long lost friend.

Silas knew she thought she was condemned, but to him she was nothing but a sweet salvation. He needed her. And he would finally have her, thanks to her idiot 'friends'. With a wave of his hand he sent the brothers flying. He took his true form as he walked over to Bonnie, smiling to himself as Stefan and Damon gaped at him from afar where they were bound.

"…Bonnie, dear…" He began and her head snapped to him, their hands raised up at the same time, except he caused her spell to die on her lips. "Now is that anyway to treat a fellow witch?"

"Silas?" She stammered.

"The one and only." He smiled. She flashed to her feet and tilted her head as she stepped into his space. He tried not to think about her proximity. She looked so beautiful as she stood before him, for a moment he forgot why he needed her. "…What is it?" He wondered when her eyes continued to pass over every facet of him.

"You look exactly –"

"_He_ looks exactly like, you mean." Silas interrupted his smile sharper and Bonnie couldn't help but run a finger over his cheek.

"Weird." She muttered as she pulled away. Silas swallowed.

"Are you okay?" He asked. She frowned.

"What should I be right now?" She countered to which he could only shrug. She still couldn't deal with the fact that Silas and Stefan were identical. But the thrumming magic racing off of him, in response to hers as it howled in her chest was undeniable. "What do you want?"

"_You_, my plans haven't changed." She scowled as she turned away from him.

"I won't play puppet to whatever it is you think you're going to achieve in this town. I didn't just kill my best friend to align myself with the likes of you." He could admit to being impressed.

"Let me mentor you then." He offered and she made a disbelieving sound in the back of her throat. "How do you think this ends Bonnie? People died tonight, people _saw_ you, covered in blood, his body where you left it…That won't just go away."

"So what then?" She snapped. His smile was warm and patient.

"Let me help you. You need protection anyway. My shadow self is currently very torn…along with his brother…They both thought themselves in love with the girl but it seems…" His voice trailed off and he smiled, "It seems that there is…" His eyes snapped to hers. "…How _curious_." Bonnie frowned and averted her gaze from his, she didn't like the slyness that coated over his features in that moment. "Although, who could blame them?" He went on, as if she was inside of his head as well. "So what do you say? Become my progeny or get turned into a vampire by Damon?" Her eyes bulged.

"He wouldn't…" She gasped. Silas grinned.

"Oh, he would."

"So…" Bonnie chewed the bottom of her lip, suddenly Damon was shouting at her, for her, Stefan too.

"**Bonnie**, no!" Stefan called.

"_**Bonnie**_!" Damon's snarl dragged on the 'n's' in her name and it tugged at some dead part of her chest. She'd taken so much from them tonight, but it wasn't real to her yet, none of it, even as it still fell down around her. She looked over to where they were, bound by Silas' magic. She looked back at Silas. "…Bonnie, please, we won't –" his voice cut off with Silas' command.

"Come, child." Silas held his arm out to Bonnie and she stepped forward and crooked her arm through it, looking up at him timidly.

"Protect me." She said, simply, but he saw the demon in her eyes that demanded either that or his head on a platter.

"With my life." He swore and they ghosted away.


	7. Chapter 7

**Note: **This stems from the 'S7 spoiler' where I think Alaric asks Bonnie to get into contact with Jo (Which bugs me because a) Sheila/Grams b) Alaric shouldn't be asking Bonnie for shit)

* * *

**The Switch**

A few candles. Some peace and quiet and no Damon breathing down either of their necks. Alaric had been coping as best as he could with the hand he'd been dealt but no more. He needed to see Jo, at least one last time, so he could move on with his life. With some convincing and despite the uproar the Heretics had been causing, Bonnie finally agreed to help him get in touch with Jo.

Bonnie said the incantation was simple enough and no matter how many times he asked her the answer was always the same, 'No, there's nothing else we'll need'. Apparently she'd done this before, Alaric shook his head, of course she had – this was Bonnie Bennett after all. The line between the living and the dead had at one point resided inside of her. She knew all there was to know about contacting the dead. Wherever they were now after the implosion of the Other Side. She raised her hands and the flames shook and stretched out, filling the air with a denseness and a swarm of heat.

Alaric's eyes shifted from Bonnie to the woods surrounding them. You'd think she'd have preferred to do it indoors where it was safer, but she waved him off. The Heretics had claimed Mystic Falls for their own and they operated within the barriers of the town, anything beyond it was beyond their care. The wind began to pick up and flurried through the waves of Bonnie's hair, bringing Alaric's gaze back to her. The witch gasped and her eyes shot open – completely milked over in their colour.

"Run." She hissed. Before he knew what was happening a sickening crack threw Bonnie on her back with a loud scream.

"Bonnie?" Alaric yelled, ignoring her warning and reaching for her, "Bonnie!" God, Damon was going to kill him. "…_Bonnie_." She went limp. "Fuck," he fumbled for his cell phone, speed dialling Damon. As the call connected Bonnie snapped upright.

"Hello?" But Alaric wasn't listening to Damon; he was staring into Bonnie's eyes – entranced.

"Why do you insist on treating her like this?" Alaric was confused, and the sound of Bonnie's voice was run through with some demonic undertone that sent chills over his skin.

"Is that Bonnie?" Damon called out, "Rick what's happening?"

"She's the last of the Bennetts and this is what you think she's good for?" Bonnie snarled her mouth a swirling vortex of magic and oscillating air. The phone flew from Alaric's grasp and sent him crash-landing into a tree. "You're a fool." She raised a clawed hand and twisted her fingers, Alaric's chest contracting with a thick pressure pressing into his organs. He called out for Damon. "A _dead_ fool." Alaric's vision was fading in and out as she curled her fingers in a wriggling pattern, riddling his veins with poison.

Lily appeared next to Bonnie with a dark skinned man flanking her. The redhead lay her hand on Bonnie's shoulder, slowly calling to her attention, nodding her head, cueing Bonnie to release Alaric of her power. She acquiesced instantly. Just as Alaric's vision cleared the dark skinned Heretic approached him and knelt down before him, gripping his jaw with firm angry fingers.

"I suppose we should thank you," The man said, with the voice that had been speaking through Bonnie earlier, "We've been toying with ways to get her on our side for too long a time and all it took was for one of her so-called friends to bat their lashes and we got the avenue we needed to possess her." Alaric spluttered, his panic spiking as blood dribbled from between his lips. "Hush, hush," the man's voice was sonorous and spell-binding, it seemed to be lulling Alaric to sleep. "It's time for you to go now." Alaric's eyes flitted to Bonnie but she was standing beside Lily, eyes opaque and unseeing, she'd be no help to him at all. "I suppose in a way I'm giving you what you wanted," The man smiled, "It is after all your wish to be united with the dead is it not?"

"Bonnie!" That was the last thing Alaric heard; Damon's voice calling for his best friend before the Heretic tore his heart from his chest. The Heretic rose to his feet as Damon skid to a halt. Alaric's heart dropped from his palm and his smile was wide as he watched the Salvatore son piece together the scene before him. "What did you do to her?" Damon hissed.

"Technically I saved her life." Lily said smoothly, "It was this or kill her truthfully, and I'm not one to waste a valuable asset for the sake of it."

"Bonnie!" Damon called to the witch but she didn't even blink. Just stood there, hair swaying in the slow breeze, dressed in high waisted shorts and a loose-fitting crop top. Nothing was out of place except her lack of reaction to him and unnatural eyes. "Why isn't she saying anything?"

"Why, Damon," Lily laughed softly as if she were talking to a child, "She doesn't _know_ you."

"Of course she knows me!" Damon hissed. Nine years, nine-_fucking_-years. That counted for something. Didn't it? "There's no version of Bonnie that doesn't know me."

"I beg to differ." The Heretic said with a small smirk. "Bennett magic, coupled with our Coven's is a dangerous thing. You'd be surprised with what we're capable of."

"What do you want?" Damon hissed, he felt like he'd been asking that since he came back home. Lily tisked and flicked her hair over her shoulder.

"From you?" She looked set to snort in amusement, "There's nothing you have to offer." Her eyes, _his_ eyes, hardened, "I have what I came for and I'm one step closer to finally teaching you and my youngest that there is quite literally nothing that can stand between me and a home for my family. It is our future that sustains me today –"

"And it is our future that never leads us astray." The Heretic said sweetly and Lily took his hand in hers and squeezed it with an affectionate smile. Damon sneered and flashed toward them. Before he could even clear a foot or two in their direction Bonnie's arm shot out and suspended him mid-air. Lily's laughter filled the air with happy notes.

"How darling." Lily cooed. Damon wasn't sure who she was talking to. "Bonnie's sharper than even I expected." She commended the numb witch. "This is working out rather well, don't you think?"

"My only concern is her blood." The Heretic said and Lily tisked knowingly, "Self-control isn't exactly our forte." Damon roared out defiantly.

"You hurt her and I'll –"

"Kill me?" Lily asked drolly. "I'd take your threat to heart but," she sucked air through her teeth, "I don't have one." Her grin was wicked. "Release him." Lily commanded and Damon was dropped to the floor.

"Come, child." The Heretic gestured for Bonnie to follow and then locked eyes with Damon. "Try and save her and we'll get her to reward you for your efforts." His smile widened. "I think you of all people know what she's truly capable of."

"Bon-nie!" Damon yelled.

"Oh, shut up." Lily scowled, flashing over and snapping Damon's neck.

_Three days later_

Alaric was buried and they were all on their toes waiting for the next one of them to be picked off. Caroline and Matt were beside themselves, not even pretending to keep it together anymore. Stefan was as haggard as they'd ever seen him, even counting his ripper days. Damon was pale and on edge – he hadn't slept since the incident in the woods. The second his eyes slipped closed for a moment he was assaulted with images of Bonnie being tortured and drunk from. It had made quick work of him reaching his wit's end.

"I can't do this!" Damon burst, startling Caroline who'd been staring out of the window blankly. "I need to go get her."

"Damon, no –" All the windows in their new home burst and the wall of magic threw them all into the walls. Eight people stepped into the room and loomed over the flailing supernaturals, Bonnie at the heart of the intruders. It had been 72 hours but it had already taken its toll on her as well. She was bled of all her colour, her hair matted with sweat and blood, green eyes blank and lifeless. Her lips were chapped and her neck and arms were covered in bites, spurring on a blind rage in Damon. Before he could react Stefan, Caroline and Matt let out scream after scream. Damon looked back up at Bonnie, watching her fingers curl upward as she raised her hand. This couldn't be how it ended. Not for him and Stefan. Not for Stefan and Caroline. And _definitely_ not for him and Bonnie.

He could not accept that.

* * *

**A/N: **This wasn't edited or whatever but _whatever _:) also, if anyone has something they want me to write within the realm of this 'what-if' world, drop me a review or a PM and I'll get cracking. Stay excellent


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